We all have bad habits, things we wished we didn’t do. I’m currently working to improve myself in some pretty big ways, and it was while I was thinking that “it is too hard to do this…“, “If I started tomorrow…“, “Just once more and then I’ll stop…“, that I finally got it :-

Firstly, if I keep doing the same thing, I will get the same results. And these results I do not want. If I eat too much and don’t exercise I WILL get fat. If I’m lazy and goof off, I WILL be far less successful. If I act like a jerk towards my sweetheart my relationship WILL suffer. If I do not live to my highest standards I WILL feel that I’m letting myself down.

Secondly, breaking a bad habit, a really ingrained one, is going to be REALLY hard for me. That’s it black and white. Not ‘”quite hard, but you’ll overcome”, not “OK, as you’ll find a short cut, a way to make it enjoyable” blah blah blah, no, IT WILL BE REALLY HARD!

In the short term it is going to cause me some kind of pain. It will not be easy. If it was easy to do, I would have done it a long time ago. I just can’t avoid that. I can’t expect to make great strides in my life without moving waaay out of my comfort zone. I must stop pussyfooting around and thinking for easy fixes, and just admit it, it will be hard - but only for a while.

Michael Jordan used to be in his high school gym even before the teacher. Marathon runners practice until it hurts, and then some more!!

What I need to do is accept the short term pain, face it smack bang head on, stand tall, look it in the eye and say “enough is enough. I stop. NOW.”